Samsung Pay a Hit in South Korea

In its first month of use in South Korea, Samsung Pay has done incredibly well. The service which allows its users to pay for items with their smartphones at participating vendors has proven to be both popular and profitable, according to the smartphone maker.

Samsung reported more than $30 million in transactions were made between August 20 and September 20. More than 1.5 million individual transactions have occurred and approximately 36 percent of Samsung users in South Korea are actively using the service, with ten percent using it every day.

“Although the details on Samsung Pay usage are constantly being updated, the response we’ve received so far has been beyond our expectations,” Samsung Pay head Injob Rhee said in a statement. “We knew Samsung Pay would be a game-changer in the mobile payments industry and now with user data, we are seeing the greater impact it is having on consumer behavior and on the lifestyle of our customers.”

Samsung Pay will launch in the United States September 28, where it will be in direct competition with Apple Pay and Google’s Android Pay. Despite the head start of the other U.S. systems, Samsung Pay has one distinct advantage: Samsung Pay does not require merchants to have NFC (near-field communications) technology. This means vendors will be more likely to support the service, since they would not be required to upgrade their equipment.

Samsung Pay is expected to make its way to China, Spain and the United Kingdom in the near future.